Despite a heightened sense of racial progress immediately following the 2008 election of the first black president, Americans’ views of black progress have waned.

The study, released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, offers a mixed picture of progress five decades after King made his historic “I Have a Dream” speech calling for racial equality. The center is a Washington-based research organization.

While large majorities of blacks and whites say the two races generally get along “very well” or “pretty well,” blacks continue to substantially lag whites when it comes to household income and net worth, and nearly 8 in 10 African-Americans say a lot of work remains to be done to reach racial equality.

Blacks are more likely than other race groups to say they have been discriminated against in the past year — 35 percent vs. 20 percent for Hispanics and 10 percent for whites — with majorities of blacks saying they are treated less fairly than whites in dealing with police, in the courts, in local public schools or on the job.

Today’s Question: Has the U.S. achieved Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of a colorblind society?

On one hand as an African American, I am less likely to be openly called the “N Word” or lynched for whistling at a white woman. The laws of the land protect me from some forms of interpersonal racism. However, that type of racism is what I am least worried about.

Just like the days of MLK Jr. we are still facing systemic racism that creates tragic conditions in communities of color. Jim Crow didn’t die after the Civil Rights Movement, he just became more intentional. So, instead of being worried about what bathroom people use, we have a judicial system that incarcerates, supervises, executes and controls an overwhelming disproportionate number of people of color across the country.

In MN African Americans make up somewhere around 5% of the states population and something like 35% of the prison population. This is not because we are innately wired for crime. Rather the same crime in North MPLS (lets say possession of Marijuana) committed by an African American, is not treated the same in Edina or in Dinky Town when we are talking about an upper middle class white person or a white Frat boy. Our systems are designed to catch crime in low income communities of color. Our media is designed to report crime a certain way in low income communities of color. Our schools are designed in a way that is failing communities of color. And we end up with barriers to employment and education that perpetuate the kind of poverty that produces a wide rang of issues.

MLK jr. had a dream, based on this poll, if you are White, you think the dream is alive and well. If you are not white, the dream has been differed. The fact that white folks and people of color are still experiencing two very different America’s is proof the “dream” is still just that, a dream.

Fred Garvin

“In MN African Americans make up somewhere around 5% of the states population and something like 35% of the prison population. This is not because we are innately wired for crime”
The first sentence is a fact; the second is an opinion.
Are males innately wired for crime as 96.3% of the US prision population is male when males make up 49% of the US population?
As the NJ Turnpike study showed, there are significant statistical differences in the driving behaviors among races of those on the NJ turnpike–these differences led to different levels of contact with law enforcement and the accompanying outcomes as a result. The “why” of differences of behaviors among the races remains unknown, and is of course a highly senstive area to study since funding is unlikely.
Does NJ translate to MN and pot busts? Maybe, maybe not, but your statement that race is likely involved in charging and convictions decisions is unsubstantiated. We need facts. Not anecdotes and rote recitation of opinions.
Your use of “white folks” appears to be insensitive if not offensive. If we wish to discuss these maters intelligently & respectfully, it’s best to avoid such charged terms.

Fred Garvin

The sad FACTS remain:
1. Black victims of crime are most likely the victims of a crime perpetrated by a black person.
2. Schools failing? The worst school systems in the US are run by cities where the mayors are black or democrat or both. Would one suggest that Democrats are failing our people of color?
3. Violent crime is down, SIGNIFICANTLY since 1990. Does the increase in prison populations correlate with that lower rate or maybe it’s even CAUSED by increased incarceration?
I’m not sure what you’re arguing: black criminals should be freed to more accurately reflect the general popluation?
Why not argue that more whites and women need to be incarcerated to more accuratetely reflect the general population?

reggie

Are you kidding? As Justin thoughtfully responded, we’ve made some progress, but we’re still asleep on the dream. Still waiting on the day when what matters most is the content of a person’s character, rather than the color of his or her skin. And if the far-right push to eliminate affirmative action and voting rights protections are successful, it will be a long wait.

A few days ago Slate published a map of integration in America. From outer space, Minneapolis-St. Paul looked like one of the most diverse and integrated cities, but as you zoomed down to the neighborhood level, we were one of the most segregated.

James

Who’s kidding whom? Affirmative Action judges people differently based on their skin color, not the content of their character.

Gary F

And the left leaning media doesn’t help. There is a proposed Law and Order episode being made where a “Paula Dean” character shoots a “Trayvon Martin” type character.

Pearly

No. I would like to ask the question of the young boy that killed Chris Lang (James Francis Edwards) who tweeted this
“90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM”
And
“Nigga of chief keef don’t drop almighty SOSA or something by #Monday I’ma put hands on every wood I see until they drop lol @ChiefKeef”
And this
“With my niggas when it’s time to start taken life’s”

Gary F

Everyone needs to read Ruben Rosario’s column in the Pioneer Press on August 15th.

PaulJ

Parts of the dream may have been achieved. Judging based on the color of skin has been vastly reduced in Birmingham, but the refocus on the “content of the character” seems to have been forgotten.

Fred Garvin

As long as the current occupant of the White House use racism when convenient even to condemn innocent US citizens, and as long as the worst AG in US history makes racist decisions…no, we have a long way to go.

Jeff

I think the US has achieved a very near colorblind society as far as businesses and educational opportunities are concerned. The big issue today is that there is an entire industry built around making people believe that we haven’t progressed since the 1950’s. Many leaders in the minority communities push an agenda that they are being held down by white people…this leads young minorities to believe that there is no hope going down the normal path and that a life of crime and stealing is justified due to past injustices. Another big problem is that we have a media that follows the cues of those same leaders, minority crime is under reported; national stories are created out of thin air and regurgitated for months (Zimmerman/Martin) while much more horrific crimes in much less confusing circumstances are either never reported or reported briefly and never mentioned again.

So what do we do? Ask the media to report crimes from a colorblind perspective, don’t just report stories (especially the same story for months on end) just because it fits your political agenda. We must ask minority leaders to step up, stop blaming others for past injustices and ask each and every person to take responsibility for their own actions. We need to eliminate that industry of self pity and call out people within every community that view violence and crime as a viable career path.

kevins

Are you saying that the media, minority leaders and the self pity industry are responsible for our culture not being fully colorblind?

Gary F

Not completely, but pretty much so.

Jeff

I would say that there is still some racism out there (with the older crowd mainly), most people aren’t 100% colorblind (in the same way that people from the North might prejudge some from the South) but it is not overt and has little to no impact on individual advancement in a career and honestly I have never heard a story about a minority being turned away from a business (in the US in the past 3 decades) to purchase an item for the color of their skin. So yes, that old racism might still exist and have a minor impact on the daily lives of minorities but let’s be honest here…where does race really play a role in people’s lives? Would you rather be a white person placed in North Minneapolis at 10 pm at night or would you rather be a black person placed in downtown Edina at 10 pm at night? Which sounds less appealing?

The media and minority leaders make excuses for people and don’t fully report the facts/news. I’m saying that they are in fact are the main reason and have the main responsibility for most people not being 100% colorblind. If it doesn’t further the liberal agenda then it’s not worth dwelling on…politics above people. It’s sad isn’t it?

kevins

Thanks…that clears it up. All along I was thinking that it might be issues like differential poverty and power, and the relatively short amount of time elapsed relative to the amount of change a large society needs to make. I forgot about the liberal agenda.

Jeff

Poverty is poverty, it hits people of all colors the same and if you’ve ever come across the research the biggest factor of success isn’t race or poverty…it’s a character trait called grit. What the liberal agenda does is break down the character trait of grit, it tells people to stop trying because someone will hold you down, that you can’t make it on your own and don’t bother trying since you already lost due to your race. Even you are attempting to tie race and poverty together when they are completely separate things. Affirmative action should be poverty based rather than race based.

kevins

Thanks. I forgot character flaws also.

Jeff

Bill Maher would be proud, that’s a very typical liberal tactic of pulling a pithy line out and ignoring the real issue of the culture that creates and even encourages those “character flaws” as you put it. You can dance around the real issues and keep suggesting that racism is rampant (even thought the data suggests otherwise)…great, where does that get us? Where we are today, I appreciate all that hard work to get us here…but I’m going to do something different and ask all people to have personal responsibility for their actions, no excuses and I’ll treat all people equally; regardless of their skin color.

JQP

policy and documents do not a culture make. you can write all the laws you want and you can point to all of the official marketing, photo ops and speeches you can find as proof of adhernece … but changing the behavior of humans is one of the slowest processes there is. the bigotry in the heart and mind still occur and THAT is what Dr. King was after changing. The laws were a tool to establish a minimum guideline.

Simple daily experience by nearly anyone in the country will expose the general lack of widespread personal/individual change in that direction.

It would be fair to ask … in deference to your perception… is Dr. King correct in expecting that level of change. Maybe … “official” change is all we can achieve.

James

I was a lot closer to colorblind 5 years ago than I am today. The current political trend is to separate and statistically analyze each ‘group’ – gender, race, age, and, in doing so, it divides people along those lines rather than bringing them together.
Assuming I can post a link here, please see the attached:http://www.wrko.com/blog/todd/morgan-freeman-stop-talking-about-race
where Morgan Freeman says, “How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it.”

Jeff

There’s a cottage industry around dividing us up into as many sub-groups as possible. Even 3 years ago who would have thought the term “white-Hispanic” would even be a real descriptive term and because of a single media grudge it has become a “new” ethnic category. Think about it like this…how many times has anyone in the media referred to Obama as “white-black” or “black-white”?

I don’t remember ever talking about the “achievement gap” when I was in school (for that matter it wasn’t even a real discussion topic until about 5 years ago like you say). Why do we divide ourselves into racial groups rather than socioeconomic groups by poverty rates to measure student performance…that would be a much more meaningful and useful statistic. We need to fix and deal with poverty rather than putting so much emphasis on race.

Fred Garvin

Where are the liberal attacks on a Christian pastor interfering and trying to influence the political process?
If Jerry Falwell urged us to love our neighbor (as he did repeatedly), the first comments here would be to draw & quarter him BECAUSE of his religion.

kevins

huh?

Fred Garvin

You know, separation of church & state–why should we care what a pastor has to say?

Khatti

Falwell had that pesky, intolerant autocrat thing going on as well as being a pastor.